Refrigerator-door



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P. M. KEITH. REFRIGERATOR noon.

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UNITED STATES PATENT Orrrcn.

FREDERICK M. KEITH, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

REFRIGERATOR-DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 586,098, dated July 13, 1897.

Application filed. January 31, 1896. Serial No. 577,649. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK M. KEITH, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Refrigerators, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention relates to improvements in roll-top refrigerators, and has for its object the production of means to reduce the friction when the cover of the refrigerator is thrown back and also to provide for automatically stopping the roll-top cover when it has been thrown back far enough to open the refrigerator.

Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of a refrigerator embodying my invention with the roll-top cover closed. Fig. 2 is a similar view with the cover open, the means for stopping the roll-top cover automatically at the point at which the refrigerator is freely opened being herein shown in operation. Fig. 3 is a partial front sectional view of the refrigerator with the roll-top cover closed on line a: m, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the pivotal plates upon which the cover revolves; and Fig. 5 is a top sectional view of the pivotal plate on line y y, Fig. 2, showing the headed pins hereinafter to be described.

The body of the refrigerator, of desired shape and construction, has secured to the inner side of each end wall E a supporting pivot-plate A, (shown separately in Fig. 4,) each plate having curved slots at and b therein, the plates serving to support and control the roll-top cover 0. The slot at is an are having its center at the bottom or lower end of the slot 1), and the latter slot is an are having its center at the lower end of slot at.

Rigid arms or members B are secured to the cover 0, each arm at its inner end being provided with two pins 0 and d, which enter and travel in the grooves a and b, respectively, of the adjacent plates A.

As best shown in Fig. 5, I prefer to provide the pins 0 and at with heads 0 and f, respectively, which prevent withdrawal or disconnection of the pins from the slots of the fulcrum-plates A, the faces of the latter being cut away to make room for the heads of the pins.

When the cover 0 is closed, as in Fig. 1, the pins 0 are at the lower ends of the slots Ct, while the pins (Z are at the upper ends of the slots 19, the latter preventing further movement of the cover forward and downward.

Upon lifting or opening the cover the pins 0 form the fulcra upon which it turns, While the pins d travel downward in the slots b until the lower ends of the latter are reached, whereupon the pins cl become the fulcra for the cover 0, the pins 0 traveling upward in their slots a.

It will be obvious that when the pins 0 reach the upper ends of their slots, as shown in Fig. 2, the movement of the cover will be automatically stopped, and it will be held stationary in raised or open position.

The pins 0 are located to the left and alittle forward of the center of the circle of which the cover 0 is a segment, thereby causing the cover 0 to recede slightly from the rim D, to be described, the receding movement continuing while the pins 0 are the fulcra.

As soon as the pins cl, which are placed to the right and a little back of the center of the cover, reach the ends of their slots 1) and become the fulcra for the cover the receding movement of the latter is reversed and the cover is moved back into close contact with the rim D.

On the curved edges of the end walls E of the refrigerator-body, along which the rolltop cover 0 travels, I place rims or hands D, preferably of metal and projecting slightly beyond the inside faces of the end walls, to thereby close the crevices or spaces between the cover.

On the interior of the rims I place a lining of felt or other suitable non-conducting material for the purpose of excluding the outside warm air.

As is well known, roll-top covers, whether sliding in grooves or revolving upon a pivot, produce considerable friction, which is increased in' refrigerators by moisture, which causes a swelling of the wood and consequent binding of the several parts.

The lining of felt or other non-conducting 5 a the fulcrum-pins, the ends of the slots coopmaterial around the edges of the cover produces friction, but this I overcome by my invention, the receding motion of the cover aiding particularly in accomplishing such reduction of friction.

I am aware that prior to my invention rolltop covers have been made with such receding motion, and consequently I do not claim such motion broadly.

Having fully described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an apparatus of the class described, a roll-top cover having rigid supporting-arms, two fulcrum-pins on each arm, and fixed seats for said pins, whereby the path of movement of the cover varies as the fulcrum changes, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, a roll-top coverhavin g rigid supporting-arms, two fulcrum -pins on each arm, and fixed pivot plates each having two oppositelycurved slots therein at front and back of the center of curvature of the cover, to receive crating With the pins to limit the rotative movement of the cover, substantially as de scribed.

23. In a refrigerator, a roll-top cover provided with supporting members, pivot-plates at front and back of the center of curvature of the cover, and two headed pins extended outwardly from each supporting member, to enter the slots in the pivot-plates, the heads retaining the pins from disengagement, substantially as described.

4.. In a refrigerator, a roll-top cover having supporting-arms, a pair of fulcrum-pins on each arm, fixed plates having curved slots eccentrically located relatively to the center of curvature of the cover, to receive the pins, the center of one slot being located at the lower end of the other slot, the curved slots acting upon the fulcrum-pins when the cover is raised, to cause the latter to recede from and thereafter approach the lining as the fulcrum changes, substantially as described.

5. In a refrigerator, a roll-top cover having supportingarms, two fulcrum-pins on each, pivot-plates slotted for the pins, one of the slots being located above and in front, and the other above and back, of the center of curvature of the cover, the upper ends of the slots approaching each other, substantially as described.

FREDERICK M. KEITH.

Witnesses:

PETER BARCLAY, GEORGE P. BECKFORD. 

